Scrolls of Life (Solo)

by **L'orlei** on July 6th, 2012, 10:46 pm

Scrolls of Life

Timestamp: Summer 12, 512 AV
Location: L'orlei's House

L'orlei was hard at work again, as she was on most days of her life. This day she was not out searching for plants or concocting some mixture of herbs and other things. This day she was armed only with pen and paper, and the power granted to her by the goddess Rak'keli. One of the things she sold in her shop were healing scrolls, but they weren't very reliable and she wasn't very good at making them. Most of the time she had to simply throw them out after she made them, knowing ahead of time that they weren't going to work. But practice makes perfect, and L'orlei was determined to get it right eventually. She knew that her scrolls, once perfected, would probably be one of her most profitable items. To be able to harness the power of healing, even once, was a valuable power most people never had access too. Well.. on Mura they did, but L'orlei's customers were rarely Konti.

L'orlei dipped the tip of her quill into the well of ink, blackening its tip, before gently lifting it out and wiping away the excess. She had to be very careful when drawing the runes, even though hers were rather simple. L'orlei touched the tip to the blank page, carefully drawing a line of ink, slowly curving it around as she drew the central glyph of the sigil she was working on. From what little L'orlei knew of other glyphers, she knew that each and every one of them used different symbols. L'orlei used a mixture of sea shapes and kontinese script in her glyphs. At the moment she was drawing a simplistic shell, which would act as her focus.

L'orlei could already tell the glyph was not going to turn out perfect, but she continued drawing anyway. She really needed to practice steadying her hand. Even though she was drawing a simple shape, even the slightest waver could mess things up.

L'orlei was able to complete about half of the shell before she had to dip the quill into the ink again, and this was the part that always messed her up the most. When she brought the tip back to the page, she had to make sure she pressed with just the right amount of force so that the width of the line would not change, so that it would seem to be one continuous line. L'orlei took a deep breath, trying to still her mind and her hand, before touching pen to paper once more. She didn't do too bad, all things considered, and was able to complete the shell without the need to dip again.

by **L'orlei** on July 9th, 2012, 2:34 pm

The next part L'orlei had to work on was the barrier. This would keep the power stored in the focus without releasing it until the trigger was activated. The barrier was almost as important as the focus itself, because without a good barrier, the magic would be released as soon as it was stored, wasting the sigil. L'orlei's barrier was something akin to waves. She liked to think of it as the water around the shell, and though real waves were random, hers followed a distinct patter.

As L'orlei traced her pen along the page, she grew rather proud of herself. Often drawing out the wavy pattern was more difficult than the focus itself. It was a more complex glyph, but by now she had warmed up some, and was able to draw more smoothly and with confidence. Even though this first scroll probably wasn't going to be worth selling, it was a good warm up. Luckily, glyphing was not a costly procedure and she was able to easily replace her materials. Screw ups were not so bad a thing, and she could afford to be a perfectionist.

After about fifteen chimes of careful drawing, she had her shells surrounded by its aquatic barrier. The next step would be drawing in the triggering glyph, completing the sigil, then she would attempt to charge it with her power. L'orlei took a quick break, flexing her fingers and letting them rest. The trigger had to be perfect as well, otherwise the scroll wouldn't activate properly. Although glyphs were relatively easy to make, they were annoying and time consuming. Everything had to be absolutely perfect, otherwise the just would not work.

by **L'orlei** on July 9th, 2012, 3:48 pm

The final step of the sigil was to draw the trigger glyph. L'orlei used a combination of imagery and konti script for her triggers. Dipping her quill, she put pen to paper once more and began to draw out the final bit of the scroll. The script she drew especially fancy, making sure to curve the letters more than necessary, and ran them together, as if they were one long serpent. She spelled out the words, "Heal Me," in the Konti language. Completing the glyph, she drew a pair of wings on the word, as if it were a winged serpent. It was like a written form of her own gnosis mark. The sigil was almost complete. She had her focus, her barrier, and the trigger. All one needed to do to activate it was speak the words "Heal Me," in the Konti language and the glyph would be activated. There was only one last step, imbuing it with power.

L'orlei had rarely used her gift to actually heal somebody. Usually when people needed healing, they went to the temple, though in the rare instances when people did come to her it was a service she freely offered. Her scrolls however, she sold, and using her power in that way was much more common for her. L'orlei couldn't turn down helping somebody who was actually hurt, and would never even think to charge for it, but she had to make a living somehow, and selling her scrolls were a good way to do it.

Even so, she was no expert. When she saw a real wound, a real illness, L'orlei found herself easily able to call on her goddess-given gnosis and help them. But the scrolls took practice and concentration. With a real injury, L'orlei just kind of zoned out and healed. With the scroll, she had to first clear her mind. Her mother taught her the very basic idea of meditating when she was young, but L'orlei had never really practiced. She wasn't good at it, but it was necessary if she wanted to get better at making the scrolls.

The young healer closed her eyes, taking in a deep breath. She had to clear her thoughts of everything but her gnosis and the scroll. L'orlei breathed in slowly, exhaled slowly, and tried to focus. Calling on the power was not the hard part, it was directing it at something that wasn't an actual wound that was the difficult.

There were other techniques to meditation than just breathing, but L'orlei didn't know them. Truly, she rarely tried to meditate, which was probably why she could rarely make her glyphs turn out right. But this time she would try, she wanted to take things seriously for a change, and do it right. She knew her scroll wasn't going to be perfect, but she needed to practice the entire process, not just the drawing phase. After several chimes of breathing in and out, her mind had still not grown still. She couldn't stop her brain, she couldn't shut it off. L'orlei sighed, realizing she might as well go on to the final step. She was as close to a still mind as she was going to be at that point, it was time to move on.

by **L'orlei** on July 9th, 2012, 4:32 pm

L'orlei breathed in deep, filling her lungs to capacity, before slowly letting the air out. She instinctively knew how to use her power, she had known since birth, but that didn't mean there weren't tricks to make it easier. Meditating was once such trick, and she was sure other healers had other methods. For her, stilling her mind was the best way.. not that she was at all good at stilling her mind. She was terrible at it, but she tried anyway.

L'orlei put her hands over the sigil, hovering just above it. She called on the power locked away in her mind, and the gnosis on her forehead began to shimmer. Healing, for L'orlei, was always a pleasant experience. She felt the power of her mark travel down from her brain, it's healing waves coursing along her nerves and into the palms of her hand. She focused, and pushed the healing energy downward and into the glyph.

The sigil flared to life for a moment, absorbing the power. It was not that she would see just how good, or bad, she had done. If her barrier was not perfect, the power would be released instantly without the trigger needing to be activated. If the focus was too flawed, it would not absorb the power at all, or maybe just a bit of it.

It only took a moment, she didn't need a lot of power to fill the glyph, nor could her glyphs hold very much power. L'orlei stopped after less than half a chime of pouring healing energy into the focus and stared down at it. From the looks of things, the barrier was holding, but she knew the focus was not perfect. She wished she had learned the magical sight her mother had tried to teach her, then she could easily tell if all her magic had stayed within the focus or not, but really there was no way of knowing without trying to use it. She was fairly certain, however, that the glyph was not perfect enough to go on the market. She wouldn't dispose of it, but perhaps she would just give it away free with someone's purchase. That would have to do.

L'orlei repeated the entire process with the other two scrolls. One of them she ended up having to scrap altogether because the barrier was imperfect and did not hold the healing energy, and the second was good enough to be put in her shop. After she was done she ran down to the store to purchase a few more scrolls before calling it quits for the day. She would make some more later, probably, but for the time being she was done. It was almost dinner time, and she was a hungry Konti.

OOC :

by **Cachet** on November 15th, 2012, 2:01 am

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